Tyra Banks' 'Teenville'

Sept. 12, 2007 — -- Tyra Banks has taken her talk show on the road, literally. This season, Banks has moved to New York and she plans to conquer bigger topics than ever before.

In one of this season's provocative first episodes, Banks gathered a group of teens to conduct her very own social experiment. She called it "Tyra's Teenville."

Banks had the teens set up their own society.

"I wanted to see what they thought in terms of prejudice and the first thought when they are assigned — for instance, I tell them assign jobs to everyone," Banks said

The jobs assigned ranged from a clergyman to a prostitute. And the participants didn't waste anytime judging one another.

One girl was told her eyeliner made her look "cheap," and her peers immediately told her she would fill the role of prostitute.

Banks said she was shocked by the contestants' candid assumptions and eagerness to participate.

"It's like, 'Oh, my gosh, are these teens a microcosm for what America is now?' So it's not to see how teens act, but it is to see — are these our future?"

Another girl named Rachel was told she would fulfill the role of a homeless person.

"I could just see you being the type of person that goes out and doesn't work and just kind of lives off of whatever they can manage and then, like, you would rather go out and party than go out and work and have a home," one of the teens told Rachel.

The consensus in the group was that her weight played a role in the stereotype she was given.

"No one wants to say it, but I'm speaking for everybody in saying, 'Yes. … When you see homeless people, you see ugly, fat, dirty,'" one boy said.

Banks said she never imagined the participants would be so honest, and she thinks it should be a wake-up call for parents about their children's behavior. When parents were shown video of the show, however, instead of reprimanding their children, "they only protected their own," Banks said.

The new season of "The Tyra Banks Show" debuted Monday.